The Karnataka government revised the night curfew timings in the state, which is being brought in as a precautionary measure in accordance with the central government’s advice amid fears of a new variant of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) detected in the United Kingdom.
The curfew will now be imposed from Thursday till January 1 from 11pm-5am, the chief minister’s office (CMO) said. It added that except for essential activities, movement of people is prohibited. Earlier in the day, chief minister B S Yediyurappa had announced that the curfew would be imposed from tonight till January 2 and said that all activities would go on as usual from 6am-10pm adding no one should be out after 10 pm.
Addressing a press briefing, Yediyurappa also said that passengers travelling to Karnataka and arriving at the Bengaluru or Mangaluru airports from abroad must have a negative RT-PCR certificate which should be obtained 72 hours prior to the departure.
“All arrangements have been made at the airport to conduct tests and health staff have been deployed there to ensure no one enters the city without getting tested,” the chief minister added.
According to the Union health ministry’s dashboard, Karnataka has registered over 911,000 coronavirus cases till now out of which 12,029 have died while nearly 886,000 have recovered.
The new Covid-19 variant (B117) detected in the UK- which is found to be 70 per cent more transmissible has triggered fears across the globe. Several countries have already restricted their travel with the UK. In India, states have started a comprehensive contact tracing of all passengers who have arrived in the country from the UK or any other European country in the last 10 days.
The Union health ministry on Tuesday had laid out standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all such passengers with a view to contain the spread of the new variant. Some of the guidelines include revealing travel history of the past 14 days, mandatory RT-PCR tests and isolation for those who test positive for the infection.
(With agency inputs)
